Three series is pretty limiting. I was tempted to replace Farseer with Kingkiller, but that series isn't finished yet. Also my list has the major caveat that I haven't yet read Malazan. The first five books are in my TBR. I think that will happen this autumn.

Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn - Williams
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - Donaldson
The Lord of the Rings - Tolkien (it was published as three books. Author's intent doesn't really matter, does it? who knows how many of these other trilogies the authors would have wanted to publish as a single book?)

One of the first series of books I ever read and still my favourite. It's a kids series, fair enough, but it was exceptionally well written and the whole world that Mr. Jacques created was unforgettable. I only hope the afterlife is like Mossflower Country!

The Twilight Giants trilogy by Troy Denning. The Ogre's Pact, The Giant Amongst US, and The Titan of Twilight. His descriptive parts are so beautiful that is is like prose. He'll describe the landscape and does such a great job that I am very happy. The books also have just the right balance of action and characterization.

His Dark Materials - Pullman (because Lyra is pretty cool)
The Lord of the Rings - Tolkien (because I believe he was my first introduction to the genre)
Song of Ice and Fire - GRRM (because I like the way he writes)

The 3rd choice I read in highschool and introduced me to the world of Fantasy, well lets say it hooked me. I read LotR first but found the books rambled about food too much. These characters, though cliched in hindsight were fun to read the time. Very good "fun" fantasy.

Rothfuss works manage to reach emotional levels that I cannot simply understand. Its the only book I have ever actually cried to while reading, both tears of joy and happiness. His ability to weave the story is excellent.

As for Martin... well he is just so different in terms of fantasy. His style and prose really draw me in. I love his characters, even the ones i hate. World building is realistic but fantasy. I love how the magic is limited and often misintpretted by the characters. The realism with the "dark" aspects such as rape, sex, murder, betrayal, lies, is what i like. Grey characters, a life like world.
I have yet to find anything to compare to him, but Im looking. I have treid Erikson (seemed too EPIC "god and magic and rez" makes no danger or suspesne bc everything is possible, but i only read half book ONE so I may try again.

Jordan...well his first book is Lord of the rings exactly with different names, cliched characters and a minor different ending that was very rushed. Lets spend 900 pages copying LotR with more worlds and then have a magic device that gets us to our ultimate destination even though we walked all this way. Its like he realized his book was too long and decided to finish. I literaly had to force myself to finsih this book, it took me three months. I have not read passed this. Had I read WoT before LotR and ASoIaF then it would have probably been on the list.

His Dark Materials - Pullman (because Lyra is pretty cool)
(because I like the way he writes)

That gives me pause for thought. As much as I liked book 1, the 2nd and 3rd books in that trilogy turned me off. I'm starting to go that way with a number of 'series.' Some of them are just padded (eg WoT), and others suffer from the fact that the longer a set of books is, the more likely there'll be a dud in there somewhere. Also I prefer shorter series with more focused plots.

Anyway, off the top of my head:

Butcher: Dresden files (not 'sophisticated' but a fun read. I've got the feeling comics/ graphic novels aren't allowed in this list so it's a good example of an ongoing saga over several books with a constantly changing background

Martin (ASOIAF)- not his best work IMHO but he does write his characters well (though I'm not convinced about him trying to sanitise his initial villains in later books).

Some not very famous person: Lord of the Rings. Say what you want about the writing/ editing. At the end of reading through a book, not many will have you thinking 'epic' as much as this one does.

1) A Song of Ice & Fire by George R. R. Martin - hands down.
2) Bartimaeus Sequence by Jonathan Stroud - A fantasy trilogy full of acerbic wit and hilarious dialogue.
3) Women Of The Otherword by Kelley Armstrong - have been following this series for almost five years and it started off really strong and ended very anticlimatically. However, the novel's dynamic characters are it's saving grace and the first book will always be re-readable to me, at least.

I read the first few in the series a number of years ago, and seem to remember quite enjoying them in a guilty pleasure kind of way. I think more have been published since I read them, but I have never quite got up the motivation to go back to the series. They were the urban fantasy read I went to after losing all interest in Anita Blake and before I discovered Dresden.

I read the first few in the series a number of years ago, and seem to remember quite enjoying them in a guilty pleasure kind of way. I think more have been published since I read them, but I have never quite got up the motivation to go back to the series. They were the urban fantasy read I went to after losing all interest in Anita Blake and before I discovered Dresden.

Yes I think I'd have to agree with you there, the books go a little down-hill due to a multitude of supernatural races that left the urban fantasy world a little cluttered.